The new M7 looks promising. Hopefully there will be M8, too Here's my personal wishlist:

- alternative hw version without soldered-on pin headers
- alternative hw version with the sensor-lens unit connect to main board by a cable
(or a version that combines both of the above)
- improved support for outdoor use (waterproof case to keep out rain and prevent dew buildup)
- built-in support for hooking in & charging a LiPo battery, with battery low - detection
- built-in wi-fi

Yes, this is something I'd like to do but it would require us to stock 2 SKUs. In future revisions I have a plan to address that.

- alternative hw version with the sensor-lens unit connect to main board by a cable

In future revisions I have a plan for this too.

- improved support for outdoor use (waterproof case to keep out rain and prevent dew buildup)

Ibrahim is working on a case.

- built-in support for hooking in & charging a LiPo battery, with battery low - detection

Future revision.

- built-in wi-fi

This is hard for us. We'll need a lot more volume before we can do this easily. The STM32 line of microcontrollers does not have built-in WiFi (kinda lame).

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As for a future revision, assuming we can ramp sales with the M7. We'll do a KickStarter in the very distant future for a version of the system where the main MCU/camera/lens-mount are all in one package and connect to a carrier board that looks like the OpenMV Cam. This will free up space for a lipo charger along with allowing businesses to buy the camera module by itself as a unit. The camera module will connect to the board via mezzanine connectors... which can attach to a cable assembly if necessary. Not sure how WiFi will fit in the picture.

Anyways, getting there is far off. We have to sell a lot of M7 boards first to get a lot of capital and customers.

We're not changing the design much for the M7 board because we're trying not to go out of business and we can't mess anything up right now. The M7 board design is conservative for that reason.

The thing is as powerful as a raspberry pi zero (in terms of coremark performance). It doesn't have the same amount of RAM but it also doesn't have have the lack of flash problem the zero has. It also will draw only 110mA.

It won't be out till ST's Q2 which is the middle of this year. Not sure on the exact date.

Yes, you can use a 3.7V battery to power the system. Please apply it to the VIN pin to go into the regular. The system cannot charge the battery however. We don't have a battery charging circuit on board. This is something I'd like to do in the future. The goal for the M7 board was not to break the design and to be conservative as possible.

Unfortunately... for our next module we don't expose the Ethernet pins making this hard. But, the SPI bus is exposed which can used with a Wiznet module... Mmm, this sucks implementation wise though. https://www.ebay.com/i/112460690292?chn=ps

A nice aluminum case with mounting holes would be great for my use... For now, I will order cases here in China as the customer will not be happy with a plastic case and double sticky tape holding it on.

It's a very handy feature, in tight spaces to be able to reverse Micro USB cable. Reversible Micro USB cables are actually available, but OpenMV M7 doesn't work with them. I tried today and M7 only worked in one orientation.

From the article there's no info on the electrical signaling there. From what I know about MicroUSB this isn't possible unless the cable has some type of logic in it to determine it's orientation. Otherwise, you're just reversing the connections on the cable.